Page 182 - Leap of Faith Vol - 2

Leap of Faith Journey of Indian Elections

The lockdown, at the end of the original 21-day duration,
was extended up to May 3, May 17 and further up to May
31, 2020. June 1, the first day of Unlock 1, saw some
major relaxations. On June 1, the Election Commission
declared the schedule for pending elections to vacant
Rajya Sabha seats in view of fresh assessment of COVID-
19 situation. Simultaneously, notification was also issued
for six more seats of Rajya Sabha – Arunachal Pradesh
(01), Karnataka (04) and Mizoram (01) that had become
due in the meantime. Thus on June 19, 2020 elections to
24 seats of Rajya Sabha took place in various states.
Except where the seats were won unopposed (like in
Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh) the members of
relevant Legislative Assemblies participated in voting in
strict compliance of COVID protocol. It included area
sanitisation, thermal testing, wearing of masks, hand An MLA suspected of being COVID-infected wearing a PPE kit casts his
sanitisation and physical distancing etc. vote for the Rajya Sabha Election in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
as a political party representative wearing protective gear looks on
Voting for Rajya Sabha, where only MLAs are electors, is a
limited affair. It was, however, evident that the battle
against COVID would not end anytime soon. The general
and bye-elections necessitating mass participation and
political campaigning could not be indefinitely put on
hold. By August 21, 2020 the Election Commission had
developed ‘Broad Guidelines for Conduct of General
Elections/Bye-Elections During COVID-19' based on
inputs received from political parties and Chief Electoral
Guidelines Brochure
Officers (CEO) of various states/UTs.
The guidelines published as an illustrated brochure
focused on 13 core areas - general instructions, nodal
health officer, EVM-VVPAT, training and capacity
building, nomination process, election material,
distribution and collection of election material, timing of
rd
3 randomisation (of polling staff), number of electors in
polling station, polling station arrangement, kit for
polling officers, postal ballot, and campaign by political
parties/ candidates, etc.

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